Hunting is the Best Drug
Some Inner City Youth find escape from their troubles via Camp Compass, a special hunting organization sponsored by Mossy Oak.
by Daniel Townsend
One late December night, inner-city high-schoolers Justin and Corey of Pennsylvania stood at a deer camp in Clay County, Mississippi, staring up at the stars.
“They were utterly amazed at the stars,” remembers Robert Edwards, who opened his Limestone Ranch to the boys. “They’d never seen the stars. With city lights, you can’t see stars.”
If not for John Annoni, a 6th grade teacher at Trexler Middle School in Allentown, Justin and Corey would’ve never found themselves hunting in Mississippi.
“The outdoors is free,” explains Annoni, “and just because my kids caught a bad break doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to learn about or experience the outdoors.”
Justin and Corey received the trip, however, as a reward for good grades.
Justin and Corey are among hundreds of other “children of the city” that have benefited over the years from his passion for the outdoors, says Annoni, who founded Camp Compass Academy fourteen years ago. John chose the name “Camp Compass” “to show that we were really trying to point (inner city) kids in the right direction.”
Mossy Oak, a Camp Compass sponsor, filmed the Clay County event.
Justin and Corey arrived in Mississippi the day after Christmas, and so the crew gave them a Christmas party and the kids received hunting gear as gifts. Justin sat shocked on the sofa, opening his gifts.
“My gosh,” he said, “this is more than I got for Christmas at home!”
“By the Lord’s blessing, Mossy Oak became part of the family,” says Annoni. “We have continually worked at putting together a model that works. We’re honored to have Mossy Oak as our big brother. … I truly think they are visionaries … (and they) care about the future of the outdoors.”
Justin killed a doe on the hunt. “The hunting was great, but the camaraderie around the cabin, families coming together—this was the most eye opening experience,” Edwards said.
Ronnie “Cuz” Strickland, senior vice president at Mossy Oak, told Edwards that the weekend produced some of the best footage he’d ever shot.
Like most of the Camp Compass kids, Justin and Corey did not grow up hunting. Annoni got them interested while in high school. “It’s a whole different world for them,” said Mississippi Wildlife Conservation Officer James Crawford, who attended the weekend event. 
Annoni, who came from a broken home, was born and raised in inner city Allentown, Penn., by his grandparents. He found solace from the stress of urban life by being outdoors.
On his first hunting experience at age 8 or 9, he “shot a squirrel with a homemade bow.” By the time he was in high school, Annoni was hooked on the outdoors. Hunting and fishing offered an escape that some of his peers sought through drugs.
''It's hard to do drugs when you want to get up in the morning and hunt animals,'' Annoni says. ''How am I going to beat a white tail (if I'm high)? C'mon.''
Justin now works as a landscaper in Pennsylvania, and Corey is in the military. “You can very easily attribute them making something of themselves to their being with involved with Camp Compass instead of a street gang,” Edwards said.
For more information on Camp Compass Academy, visit www.campcompass.org. SS
daniel@thesportingspirit.com
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